Door structure

ABSTRACT

Hinged door means in which movement of one of a pair of doors causes corresponding and simultaneous movement of the other. The apparatus includes means for mounting the doors for opening and closing movements across an access area provided in the cabinet frame or mask. A special panel is provided which forms part of the decorative finish of the cabinet mask, serves to form bearing means for the doors, secures the doors and door-operating linkage in operative position, and provides a stop against which the doors abut when in closed position.

ilnite States Patent [72] Inventors Arthur Berenbaum Holland; Robert M. McDonough, Philadelphia, both of Pa. [2]] Appl. No. 69,282 [22] Filed Sept. 3, 1970 [45] Patented Dec. 21,1971 [73] Assignee Philco-Ford Corporation Philadelphia, Pa.

[54] DOOR STRUCTURE 5 Claims, 6 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S.Cl 49/109, 312/7 TV, 312/271 [51] int. Cl E05c 7/06 [50] Field of Search 49/ l 09, 110, 114; 3l2/3l9, 324, 325, 272, 138, 7 TV, 271

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,670,952 3/1954 Bushell 49/109 FOREIGN PATENTS 281,674 12/1964 Netherlands Primary Examiner-Kenneth Downey Attorneys-Carl H. Synnestvedt, Robert D. Sanbom, William E. Denk, Herbert Epstein and Harry W. Hargis, lll

ABSTRACT: Hinged door means in which movement of one of a pair of doors causes corresponding and simultaneous movement of the other. The apparatus includes means for mounting the doors for opening and closing movements across an access area provided in the cabinet frame or mask. A spe cial panel is provided which forms part of the decorative finish of the cabinet mask, serves to form bearing means for the doors, secures the doors and door-operating linkage in operative position, and provides a stop against which the doors abut when in closed position.

PATENTEnnEcm I97! 3,628,288

sum 1 BF 2 PATENTEU 05321 I971 SHEET 2 [IF 2 noon STRUCTURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In certain types of cabinets particularly cabinets housing radio and television apparatus, it is desirable to house the control members within a zone or recess provided in the mask which frames the cabinet front and which recess is covered by one or more doors. Frequently these doors have been inconvenient and unreliable in operation, and relatively expensive to manufacture and assemble with the cabinet.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to cabinets, for example television cabinets and is particularly concerned with features of construction of a pair of cooperating, decorative doors which, in their closed position, conceal a set of control knobs. Invention resides in the details of an unusually inexpensive, yet reliable, mechanism by means of which the doors are assembled and pivoted in the frame assembly, and can be opened and closed simultaneously through manipulation of either one of the doors.

It is the general object of our invention to provide such door mechanism which is of unusually good appearance, is very simple to manufacture and assemble, and which will continue to operate in a reliable fashion over a long period of service.

The apparatus of the invention is particularly characterized by an unusually simple assembly constituting essentially only four parts. These parts are a pair of doors, a door control link, an overcenter spring, and a panel overlay, which completes the decor of the cabinet and lowers the cost of the apparatus by performing a variety of functions. In this latter respect, this panel provides'a portion of the bearing means which pivotally mounts the doors, holds the doors, link and spring in assembled position, and provides a door stop. The doors and associated spring and link can readily be removed from the cabinet by merely withdrawing the panel overlay, after which the doors may be pivoted out of position and removed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. I is a fragmentary perspective illustration of the cabinet of a television receiver which embodies door apparatus in accordance with our inventions;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view illustrating, on an enlarged scale, certain constructional features of the door apparatus and showing the mode of assembly;

FIG. 3 a fragmentary elevational view looking down on a pair of doors constructed and mounted in accordance with the invention, and illustrated in the closed position;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary elevational view showing the upper portion of such pair of doors as viewed from the front and disassociated from the cabinet;

FIG. 5 is an exploded, elevational showing similar to FIG. 3, but with the doors in open position, and showing the manner in which a removable panel, which preferably comprises a portion of the cabinet mask, serves to retain the doors in assembly; and

FIG. 6 is a side view, partly in section, illustrating the apparatus which retains the doors in assembly with the cabinet.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With more detailed reference to the drawing, and initially to FIGS. 1 and 2 thereof, the invention is illustrated for exemplary purposes as applied to a cabinet 10 of a television receiver. The forward portion of this cabinet is framed by a decorative mask 11 which has a large cutout portion 12 through which is exposed the face 113 of a cathode-ray tube. The right-hand portion of the framing mask 11 is occupied by a generally rectangular frame 14 which has top, bottom and sidewalls 15, 16 and 17, respectively, and which is divided into upper and lower sections. The lower section, in this embodiment, overlies the loudspeaker of the television receiver and hence is provided with suitable grille cloth shown at 18. A pair of doors 19, 20 are swingably mounted at the upper portion of the rectangular frame M, being mounted and associated with said frame in a manner characteristic of this invention. The door arrangement is of a type in which opening one door causes corresponding and simultaneous movement of the other and, with this in mind, the right-hand door is provided with a projecting finger piece 21.

Now with particular reference to FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, it is seen that the doors are mounted for opening and closing movements with respect to a recess defined by upper wall l5, a portion of one of the sidewalls l7 and by a lower wall 22, which is spaced below the upper wall 15 a distance corresponding generally to the height of the doors. The backwall 23, which completes the recess, is provided with apertures shown at 24 through which would extend control shafts, not illustrated. The control knobs would of course be disposed within the recess, behind the doors. The doors and the cabinet mask, including the walls which define the recessed area, preferably are fabricated of any suitable moldable plastic, and the lower wall 22 is provided with a pair of apertures to which more detailed reference is made below.

As is clearly seen in FIG. 2, each door is provided with upper and lower door-supporting extensions or brackets 25, 26, respectively. When the door assembly is complete, each of these brackets extends rearwardly of the door and into the recessed area which houses the controls. The lower surface of the upper wall 15 is provided with journal-forming structure which may be formed integrally with the wall. This structure comprises a raised generally C-shaped area 27 which has a pair of spaced pad portions 28, 29 extending toward the exterior of the cabinet and each of which is provided with a generally semicircular bearing pad area, seen at 30 and 31. As best illustrated in FIG. 3, each of the upper set of brackets 25 is provided with a door pivot pin molded integrally with the bracket. These upper pivot pins are shown at 25a and 25 b and are adapted to be received within the bearing pad areas 30 and 3ll, respectively. As will be clear from a consideration of FIG. 2 lower brackets 26 (only one of which is illustrated in the figure) are provided with molded pivot pins 26a which are receivable within apertures 32, provided in the bottom wall 22.

Each of the upper door brackets 25 also carries a pedestal, best illustrated in FIG. 4. These pedestals are shown at 33 and 34, and each pedestal is provided with a reduced and preferably undercut portion 35, 36 adapted to receive the hooked ends of a coil spring 37. The upper two brackets 25- 25 carry linkage effective to cause either door to be moved between open and closed position in response to corresponding movement imparted to the other door. Conveniently the linkage comprises a straight section of stiff wire 38 having downturned ends 39 (see FIG. 2) adapted for insertion within depressions formed in the top of the bracket. The position which the wire link 38 occupies, when the doors are closed, is illustrated in FIG. 3. By comparison of this figure with the showing of similar parts as illustrated in FIG. 5, where the doors are open, it will be seen that movement imparted to one door is transmitted, through the link 38, to the other door which is constrained to follow a path similar to that of the door to which movement was imparted. The invention is featured by the ease with which the spring and link may be applied to the doors and the doors may be assembled with the cabinet structure. The assembly procedure is clear from Fig. 2 although it should be understood that. only one door is illustrated in that figure. The assembly is initiated by holding both doors in the same plane (that is in the closed position), after which the downturned ends of the control link 38 are each fed into a hole provided in a corresponding one of the two brackets 25. The hooked ends of the spring 37 are next secured over the pedestals 33, 34, engaged with said undercut portions which appear in FIG. 4 at 35 and 36.

When the door subassembly has been completed, the pair of doors are assembled with the cabinet frame or mask structure by holding the doors in open position, that is, in parallel planes, and lowering the two lower pivot pins, one of which appears at 26a, into corresponding journals 32 provided in lower wall 22. The doors are then tilted back within the cabinet recess until the upper pivot pins 25a and 25b are received within the semicircular bearing pad areas 30 and 31, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5.

The pedestals which hold the spring are so located that the spring is placed in increased tension as the door passes through its arc toward either the open or the closed position. Since the spring 38 extends in a direction generally parallel to the line of centers of the upper pivot pins 25a and 25b, it will be apparent, from comparison of FIGS. 3 and 4, that opening of the doors causes the spring to be displaced bodily across the line of centers defined by the pivot pins. Thus the spring force is effective resiliently to maintain the doors in either the open or closed position. In particular accordance with the invention a panel overlay or filler piece 40 is provided. This panel or filler piece performs a number of functions. Its vertically extending forward wall 41 overlies the aperture which contains the link and spring (see FIG. 6), thereby enhancing the attractiveness of the cabinet by concealing the operating linkage. As best seen in FIGS. and 6, this panel, which is readily withdrawable from the recess, is further provided with a tongue or extension 42 which extends inwardly of the cabinet. Disposed laterally of this tongue are flat bearing pad areas 43, 44 which, respectively, are disposed to cooperate with the mentioned bearing pad areas 30 and 31, whereby to prevent disassembly of the doors from the cabinet. The filler piece is shown in FIG. 5, withdrawn from association with the door assembly. As will be clear from that figure, taken with FIG. 6, the piece 40 is moved inwardly of the cabinet until the bearing areas 43 and 44 abut the confronting edges of the pad portions 28 and 29. This abutting contact secures the upper door pivots a and 25b within the semicircular bearings and 31 and prevents inadvertent disassembly of the doors.

When the apparatus is completely assembled, tongue 42 of panel 40 closely overlies door control link 38 (see FIG. 6) and thus prevents its escape from the apertures in which its ends are received. Finally, and as shown at 45, the panel includes abutment means which provides a stop for the doors when they occupy their closed position. The panel is secured in position by the use of screws 46 which extend through the rear wall 23. As will be understood, the entire structure may readily be disassembled by removing the screws, withdrawing the panel 40, and thereafter tilting the door assembly forward about the lower pivots 26 and removing the same from the cabinet recess.

Apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention is not only of very good appearance but has proven to be very simple to manufacture and assemble, with'consequent significant reduction in the cost of the door apparatus.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for mounting and controlling a pair of swinging doors, said apparatus comprising; frame means having wall structure defining an opening to be closed by said doors and further having a plurality of journal means with which end portions of each door are pivotally associated; control linkage having opposite end portions each of which is so associated with a corresponding one of said doors and so located with respect to said journal means, that movement applied to one door is communicated to and causes corresponding movement of the other door; and a panel removable associated with and forming part of said frame means, said panel having portions cooperable with at least certain of said journal means to hold said door in assembled relation with said frame means.

2. Apparatus in accordance with claim I, and in which said panel is provided with abutment means providing a stop for said doors when whey occupy their closed position.

3. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, and further characterized in that a portion of said panel bears against said control linkage to prevent the latter from becoming dislodged from association with said doors.

4. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, and further including elongated resilient means coupled to each of said doors and extending in a direction generally parallel to the line of centers defined by a pair of said journal means, the construction and arrangement being such that said resilient means is displaceable bodily across said line of centers during opening and closing movements of said doors, and maintains the doors in either the open or the closed position.

5. Door structure comprising, in combination: cabinet framing defining as aperture and being provided with a pair of journals; a pair of mating doors each carrying pivot means received within a corresponding one of said journals, whereby said doors are mounted on said framing for swinging movements between open and closed positions with respect to the aperture defined by said framing; door-operating linkage having spaced portions each of which is associated with a corresponding one of said doors, said linkage being efiective to cause one door to be moved between open and closed position in response to corresponding movement imparted to the other door; and readily removable panel means including means defining bearing pad areas cooperable with said journals to maintain said pivot means within said journals and prevent inadvertent disassembly of said doors from said cabinet framing, said panel means further serving to cover said linkage and maintain said doors and linkage in assembled relation. 

1. Apparatus for mounting and controlling a pair of swinging doors, said apparatus comprising; frame means having wall structure defining an opening to be closed by said doors and further having a plurality of journal means with which end portions of each door are pivotally associated; control linkage having opposite end portions each of which is so associated with a corresponding one of said doors and so located with respect to said journal means, that movement applied to one door is communicated to and causes corresponding movement of the other door; and a panel removable associated with and forming part of said frame means, said panel having portions cooperable with at least certain of said journal means to hold said door in assembled relation with said frame means.
 2. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, and in which said panel is provided with abutment means providing a stop for said doors when whey occupy their closed position.
 3. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, and further characterized in that a portion of said panel bears against said control linkage to prevent the latter from becoming dislodged from association with said doors.
 4. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, and further including elongated resilient means coupled to each of said doors and extending in a direction generally parallel to the line of centers defined by a pair of said journal means, the construction and arrangement being such that said resilient means is displaceable bodily across said line of centers during opening and closing movements of said doors, and maintains the doors in either the open or the closed position.
 5. Door structure comprising, in combination: cabinet framing defining as aperture and being provided with a pair of journals; a pair of mating doors each carrying pivot means received within a corresponding one of said journals, whereby said doors are mounted on said framing for swinging movements between open and closed positions with respect to the aperture defined by said framing; door-operating linkage having spaced portions each of which is associated with a corresponding one of said doors, said linkage being effective to cause one door to be moved between open and closed position in response to corresponding movement imparted to the other door; and readily removable panel means including means defining bearing pad areas cooperable with said journals to maintain said pivot means within said journals and prevent inadvertent disassembly of said doors from said cabinet framing, said panel means further serving to cover said linkage and maintain said doors and linkage in assembled relation. 